Wednesday, November 30, 2011

US expert: The Central Bank is Iran’s most important remaining connection to the international marketsOn Thursday, December 1, the EU foreign ministers will meet to discuss further sanctions against Iran. There are reports that Germany wants to block sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). By contrast, France supports sanctions against the CBI and the UK already adopted them on November 21, 2011. [1]Avi Jorisch, former Policy Advisor at the US Treasury Department's office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, comments: „Germany must support the initiative of its Western allies to sanction the Central Bank of Iran. The CBI is Iran’s most important remaining connection to the international markets. Sanctioning it would greatly decrease the regime’s ability to acquire crucial financial and technological resources. Now is the time for a strong sign of international unity and determination against the global threat of a nuclear-armed Iranian regime.” The oil sanctions supported by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle would be an important measure, but they must not be played out against sanctioning the CBI. Iran ranks only on place 14 of Germany’s oil suppliers [2], while Germany is still Iran’s most important Western trade partner and technology provider. Michael Spaney, spokesperson for the campaign STOP THE BOMB, adds: “It looks as if Germany still refrains from drastically increasing the pressure on the Iranian regime. Germany has still exported goods worth 2.3 billion Euros to Iran this year until September.” Especially the outrageous storming of the British embassy in Tehran must be followed by a determined European reaction. The violent riots were obviously tolerated or initiated by the regime and were aimed against new sanctions. Any sign of weakness and disunity after this provocation would signal Tehran that violence works, and that it can continue not only with its nuclear program, but also with brutally oppressing the Iranian opposition and supporting international terrorism.More...

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

by Peter MartinoWill the euro survive until Christmas? It is far from certain. It is even more uncertain, even unlikely, if it will survive until the Christmas after this, 2012. Investors are gearing up for a partial or complete collapse of the eurozone, the group of European nations that use the euro as their common currency.More...

Monday, November 28, 2011

A "financial war" against Tehran would be the most humae way of avoiding a nuclear oneBy Matthias KüntzelThis Monday was a good day for the Iranian people and a bad one for the Iranian regime: on 21 November 2011 the UN General Assembly condemned human rights violations in Iran, the USA reinforced its sanctions on the Iranian oil and petrochemical industries, Canada banned transactions with the Iranian Central Bank, France called for an end to purchases of Iranian oil and the UK suspended all financial cooperation with Iran with immediate effect.Missing from this list, however, are Germany and the EU.On 8 November the body empowered by the UN to deal with such matters, the IAEA, brought forward unambiguous evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. On 14 November the EU Foreign Ministers met to discuss their response to the IAEA report and decided … nothing, apart from to postpone a decision until 1 December. This failure and the subsequent unilateral steps and statements by London and Paris show the divisions within and the impotence of EU foreign policy in this area.In a communiqué of 21 November, France’s President Sarkozy described the actions of the Iranian regime as “a grave and urgent threat to peace“. “In addition to the unacceptable risk of nuclear proliferation, they could spark a military escalation in the region with catastrophic consequences for Iran and for the world.”A threat of this magnitude calls not for prevarication, but swift and strong action: every day that passes without massive Western pressure increases the likelihood of a military strike against Iran. So what can be done?More...

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Jeffrey T. Kuhner, Washington Times’ columnist, mourns the upcoming financial demise of his Balkan poodle – Croatia.“Croatia is on the verge of national surrender,” mourns he and says that “Having won its war for national independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, Croatia is about to fritter away its hard-won sovereignty.”Whaaaat-evaa…More importantly, one should wonder why a president of the Edmund Burke Institute – as though anyone cares WTF Jeffrey’s “institute” does – is so concerned about Croatia so much so that many of his texts on Washington Times deal with this former Nazi statelet.Then again, one should wonder whether Jeffrey’s love of Croatia is the Institute’s front for Nazism.Let’s consider some of Kuhner’s invectives, particularly the one where he says that, basically, Croatia lived in the “Serb-dominated Yugoslavia”, against his support for various political forces in Croatia.Social and political current in Croatia that emphasizes Croatia’s alleged “Serb-dominated” enslavement is claimed by the Nazi-loving nostalgists of the WWII Ustasa regime while the political support whom Kuhner publicly gives, via his Washington Times column, are Croatian political forces who say that embracing communist domination, led by a Croat Tito, was a matter of Croatian national salvation because Croatia would have been, they claim, wiped out because it would have had to eventually pay for its genocide of Serbs and Jews had it not been for the ethnic Croat, Tito, who led those communists, to save them by placing them into a “brotherly” Republic called Yugoslavia.For Nazi Croats, Yugoslavia was an abomination and so was for the non-Nazi Croats, because they had to live with Serbs, accept out of necessity because Croat Nazis lost.Political party lines between these two strands of modern Croatian thought are not so clear cut but, generally speaking, both have found an understanding: Serbs are to blame by both even though those two cannot get an agreement as to which Croat is more patriotic - the one whose father was a communist or the other whose Croat father was a Nazi.By citing Nazi thought invectives and supporting non-Nazis, Kuhner’s invectives thread this strain of modern Croatian political thought but along a thin line: reconcile these two Croatian sides, for the love of Croatia!So, is Kuhner a Nazi?Perhaps not in the sense that he wants Jews dead but from the perspective that Kuhner is blaming another Nazi genocide victim, the Serbs… well, who knows. Those who suffered from Croatia – like Serbs and Jews – they may think so.And what’s Kuhner got to say about that?He will probably deny he is a Nazi, threaten lawsuit, and keep on printing Nazi-type invectives against Serbs (but not Jews) on Washington Post… perhaps be very proud that some text space is dedicated here.M Bozinovich

Saturday, November 26, 2011

STOP THE BOMB calls for the expulsion of anti-Semitic board of trustee member of the German Banks Foundation "Schloss Neuhardenberg"

The campaign STOP THE BOMB is calling on the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg, a foundation of a German trustee saving's bank association, to split up with its board of trustees member Mostofa Dolatyar, deputy foreign minister a.i. of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The representative of the Iranian regime attracted attention for his anti-Semitic remarks. Board of Trustee members of the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg include among others Matthias Platzeck (SPD, photo), minister president of the Land Brandenburg, and Bernd Neumann, German federal commissioner for culture and media. [1]In June 2010 Dolatyar told an Iranian news agency: "We hope that the prophecy of the Imam [Khomeini] regarding the downfall of this regime [Israel] will occur very soon and that we will be witnesses of it." [2]STOP THE BOMB spokesperson Michael Spaney says: An anti-Semite, who welcomes the annihilation of Israel, is simply out of place as a board member in a democratic foundation. As arepresentative of a regime that brutally oppresses the brave resistance of its people in their own country, Dolatyar should also be intolerable for a Foundation, which claims to work in an „ethical tradition“ of a „consistent, ethically justified resistance against dictatorial rogue regime.“ [3]The Iranian regime suppresses dissidents, women, homosexuals, Baha'is and members of other religious groups, tortures and murders them. [4] It is official state policy to deny the Holocaust, to announce the destruction of Israel and to work on a nuclear weapons program. Moreover, the Iranian regime, whose defense minister himself is an internationally wanted terrorist [5], is the world's largest sponsor of terrorist groups.In October, the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg had to cancel a planned meeting with Iranian Ambassador Alireza Sheikh Attar and the philosopher Rüdiger Safranski due to massive protests. [6] Sheikh Attar was, according to Iranian human rights groups personally involved in violent crime during his term as provincial governor and remains under suspicion of being the procurement activities for the Iranian nuclear program, as well as responsible for the surveillance and intimidation of dissident Iranian exiles. [7]The protests against Dolatyar take place in a time when the emergence of the Iran-question splits the EU. [8] While Britain and France continue to restrict their business with Iran, Iranian lobby groups in Germany increased their promotion for the expansion of economic relations between Germany and Iran. In October an „expert discussion“ took place in Berlin with the Vice Minister for Economic Affairs of Iran in the premises of the German Foundation DGAP [9]. Recently a German-Iranian economic conference in cooperation with the largest Association of Medium-Sized Companies in Germany (BVMW) took place in Berlin as well. [10]Michael Spaney: "The protests against Dolaytar's position in the board of trustees refer once again to the fact that the question of dealing with an anti-Semitic dictatorship can not only be solved alone by the federal government, it is a matter of all democratic institutions. Especially German democratic institutions should be aware of their responsibility towards anti-Semitism and dictatorship. The Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg stands with its board of trustees for the legitimization and subsidy of the anti-Semitic Islamist dictatorship in Iran."More...

Friday, November 25, 2011

Non-EU workers and their relatives will have to prove knowledge of one of Switzerland's national languages if they want to stay in the country.Immigration permits for non-European Union citizens will be harder to get in Switzerland, but the country will also have to improve its efforts to integrate the newly arrived. Those are the two main goals of the proposed new Immigration and Integration Act presented on Wednesday by the Federal Council, in agreement with the cantons."Switzerland can and should do more," Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told reporters on Wednesday in Bern.According to the draft, spouses or children of Swiss or non-Swiss nationals who aspire to reside in the country will have to prove they speak German, French or Italian, or that they have enrolled in a language course to learn one of the languages. This will only apply to citizens coming from outside the European Union, including adult children, with the exception of people who are disabled or illiterate."Language plays an absolutely central role in integration," said Sommaruga.Immigrants from the EU and EFTA cannot be forced to learn a language since this would violate bilateral agreements, even though the Justice Minister said that they should be encouraged.Other mandatory criteria that will have to be met include respect for the fundamental principles of the Swiss Constitution, respect for public safety and order, as well as a desire to participate in the economic life of the country or receive some sort of training.thelocal

The event will be held in English.Please plan for possible checking at the entrance.Wine reception after the event.

Will Bashar Assad's regime stay in power by using brutal force against the uprising that started in March 2011? Which chances has the opposition, and how is it composed? What role does the Syrian regime play in the region, and what would be the consequences of a fall or survival of the regime for the Iranian-dominated so-called "resistance camp" with Hamas and Hezbollah? What strategies should the West pursue to promote a democratic and secular development in Syria and the region, and to bolster the security of Israel?

Farid Ghadry, born in Aleppo, is co-founder and Chairman of the Reform Party of Syria (RPS), which currently has its headquarters in the United States. RPS campaigns for a fall of the Assad regime, turns against the influence of Islamists in the Syrian opposition and advocates for a reconciliation with Israel of a future free Syria. In 2007, the Assad regime revoked Mr. Ghadry's Syrian citizenship after the Knesset issued an invitation for him to speak about co-existence and peace between Syrians and Israelis. (http://ghadry.com).

Dr. Jonathan Spyer, born in London, now lives in Jerusalem and works as a Senior Research Fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center (www.gloria-center.org) of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. He writes inter alia for the "Guardian", "Haaretz" and the "Jerusalem Post", and was featured as an expert by BBC, Al Jazeera and CNN. His book "The Transforming Fire. The Rise of the Islamist-Israeli Conflict "(2010) discusses the rise of Islamism and was named several times one of the best and most important books on the Middle East. (www.jonathanspyer.com)Organized by STOP THE BOMB

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

On November 17th, STOP THE BOMB invited Emanuele Ottolenghi to speak about the Iranian nuclear program in Vienna. "Deutsche Welle", Germany's international broadcaster, spoke to Ottolenghi about sanctioning the Iranian regime:More...

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Iranian oil minister Rostam Ghasemi who is a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and listed on both the UN- and the EU-sanctions lists, is going to chair the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, December 14th. If he is permitted entry to the European Union, STOP THE BOMB will protest in front of the OPEC building in Vienna. Further information forthcoming on our website...

Monday, November 21, 2011

About 20,000 Serbs from Kosovo are seeking Russian citizenship because Serbia is incapable of protecting their human rights which are routinely violated by the Albanian separatists that are supported by NATO and Washington.An official request for Russian citizenship was filed with the authorities of Russia and Russia’s ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandar Konuzin has confirmed this.Speaking at the airport in Nis, where Russia has a military based for humanitarian purposes, Konuzin said that the citizenship request is “very serious matter” and that it will be looked at.“We have laws that specify how to get Russian citizenship. When so many people ask for it, that gets a political dimension,” Konuzin was quoted as saying and translated here freely.Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia understands this massive request and says that Russia will seriously look at it.Belgrade paper Blic says that Russian ambassador to NATO, Dimity Rogozin, said that these Serbs should be repatriated east of the Urals in Siberia.M Bozinovich

Sunday, November 20, 2011

By BENJAMIN WEINTHALAustria continues Iran trade, refueling Iran Air planes; Vienna-based specialist says country strongly contributes to keeping Iran from int'l isolationBERLIN – “In the first eight months of this year, Austrian firms supplied goods and services worth a total of 189 million euros to the Islamic Republic, more than, for example, to Israel, Thailand or Ireland,” the Vienna daily Die Presse reported recently.Austrian energy giant OMV continues to refuel Iran Air planes, in contrast to many fuel suppliers across Europe.“While top-ranking British, European politicians are quite vocal about new Iran sanctions, Austria remains silent,” Dr. Diana Gregor, a Vienna-based specialist who has written and lectured on Austrian-Iran relations, wrote to The Jerusalem Post by e-mail on Friday.“In recent years, Austria has strongly contributed to keeping the Iranian regime from international isolation, and has not taken any steps toward destroying the economic basis of the dictatorship of the ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guards,” Gregor wrote.Yacov Stiassny, from the Israel-based Central Committee for Jews in Austria, told the Post by phone from Bat Yam on Friday, “Yes, it is obvious what they [the government in Vienna] should be doing, but they are not doing it. Business is more important to Austria than its commitment to the Jewish people and Israel. It is a pity.“Instead of taking care of the Jews who fled Austria, the Austrians are doing business with Iran,” he said.He estimates that between 1,000 and 2,000 Austrian-born Jews live in Israel today. “Roughly 10,000 Austrian Jews fled to Palestine between 1938 and 1941,” he said. Stiassny stressed, however, that some came “illegally” and there are no exact numbers.He was born in 1946 and grew up in Vienna. His parents survived Nazi extermination camps in Poland. He left Austria in 1967 to make aliya.Stiassny travels to Vienna twice a year. “My mother still lives in Vienna, and my sister,” he said.When asked about trade with Iran, Bernhard Salzer, a spokesman for the chamber of commerce in Austria (WKÖ), wrote the Post by e-mail on Friday that his group “represents the interests of 440,000 Austrian companies in Austria. The WKÖ does not itself have any business relations with Iran...”As for sanctions, the WKÖ adheres to “all international and European resolutions” and “it is our duty to best inform our member companies about the international rules” so that “international sanctions like those against Iran can be followed.”Dr. Wolfram Moritz, who heads the WKÖ’s Iran trade section, declined to answer questions on the telephone and referred queries to Salzer.Asked about what companies are active in Iran, the nature of their work, trade volume, and whether the WKÖ had concerns about representing the business interests of companies dealing with Iran’s government because of its Holocaust denial and its nuclear weapons program, Salzer did not immediately return Post e-mails and telephone calls.According to the Die Presse article, the WKÖ is the main contact organization for advice regarding Austrian exports to Iran.Dr. Ariel Muzicant, the head of Austria's 7,430-member organized Jewish community, wrote the Post on Thursday by e-mail, "The Europeans have it in their hands as to whether Iran obtains a nuclear bomb or not. There are three measures that could force Iran to end its [nuclear] program.“Ban flights to Iran and [provide] no air-space rights for Iranian or other airline companies” dealing with Iran, he advised.“The supply of machines, spare parts, tools and other heavy equipment” to Iran should be stopped, he continued.Every Iranian who seeks to fly to Europe should have to apply for a visa, with the exception of humanitarian cases, Muzicant wrote. “But the Europeans would rather conduct business and accept a possible catastrophe.”Gregor, the Vienna-based expert, wrote the Post, “Austria should suspend all business with companies supplying Iran with refined fuel, or put a moratorium on new deals. The Austrian government should prevent banks from giving loans, insurances or grants to foreign companies supplying Iran with energy resources.”She continued, “All foreign assets held by members of the Iranian government should be frozen. Austria should suspend all (future) guaranteed public subsidies designated for economic development in Iran (especially those going toward the energy sector). Austria would have to ensure that insurance companies do not insure Iranian tankers and liquefied [petroleum gas] containers that supply Iran, and thereby ‘feed’ the Iranian nuclear program.”A Post e-mail query to the Austrian Foreign Ministry was not immediately returned.Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said earlier this month that his government has not decided on its policy toward new penalties to punish Tehran for the development of nuclear weapons.The Vienna Municipality provides educational and cultural space to Iran’s embassy for events.Eva Gassner, a spokeswoman for the city government, wrote the Post last week that “event centers are open to all groups, organizations or private persons independent of their cultural, religious or global background perspectives.”The “events have to take place in accordance with conditions outlined by the authorities and legal regulations,” she said.Asked if Iran’s policy of Holocaust denial contradicts Vienna’s educational work, Gassner did not immediately answer.Austria has an anti-hate law barring denial of the Shoah.jpost

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Mohamed Mahmoud, a 26-year-old Austrian, wears a traditional white tunic and a light-brown hat and keeps his hair long, as is the tradition in the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Only his camouflage vest and dark-blue sneakers place him in the modern world here in Europe, which he re-entered Sept. 12 after serving a four-year prison sentence for joining and actively supporting Al Qaeda and its affiliates.It is a world that he says he could easily leave again. “I want to send the message that I am ready to die for my religion any time,” he said in an interview last month, his first since his release. “I have nothing to lose in life. Today I know that demonstrations and protests don’t help, and today I know that the West is lying about its freedom of speech and human rights.”(...)Out of prison, Mr. Mahmoud is now preparing to settle down in Berlin and has started a new group, called Millatu-Ibrahim, whose goals, he said, would be to “preach the word of Allah, fight for the better treatment and release of especially female Islamist prisoners.” He has already secured prominent supporters like Abou Maleeq, the former rapper “Deso Dogg.”More...

Friday, November 18, 2011

TODAY'S meeting in Berlin between David Cameron and Angela Merkel is crucial for Britain's future.Germany has been throwing its weight around, telling us we share responsibility for saving the euro.The PM must tell Germany that while we need the eurozone to rescue itself, it got itself into this mess and it must get itself out of it.As for German plans to impose a crippling new tax on the City of London, the answer is Nein.thesun

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Berlin’s Jewish community has criticised the reinstatement of a radio host who sent an email to a listener which appeared to deny the Holocaust.The Jewish Community of Berlin criticised the decision this week, calling it “surprising” that Ken Jebsen has been allowed to continue his popular KenFM show on Radio Fritz, a station operated by the state-run Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), according to Tagesspiegel.He sent a rambling email to a listener earlier this month in which he wrote, “I know who invented the holocaust as PR. It was Freud’s nephew.”It ended up posted on the blog of a high-profile columnist for Die Welt newspaper. It prompted a firestorm of criticism and led to Jebsen’s temporary suspension from the airwaves two weeks ago.Yet he was allowed to begin broadcasting again last Sunday - after consultations with station management, RBB told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.More...

Jerusalem/Muenster-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the German authorities to investigate the possibility that the same officials who either colluded with neo-Nazi terrorists or purposely ignored their criminal activities also conspired to prevent the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, and its chief researcher in Germany Dr. Stefan Klemp, the Center noted that unlike the situation in most of the other Laender, where numerous Nazi war criminals have been and/or are currently under investigation, in recent years there have no investigations whatsoever of Holocaust perpetrators in Thuringia.According to Zuroff and Klemp:"In the light of this week´s revelations, we cannot totally discount the possibility that the same officials who colluded and/or turned a blind eye to neo-Nazi activity in Thuringia helped made sure that no Nazi war criminals would be investigated, let alone prosecuted. The urgent investigation into the serious crimes committed by the neo-Nazis should therefore also seriously consider the possibility that their activities included efforts to shield their ideological predecessors from the recently increasingly successful efforts in Germany to bring Nazi war criminals to justice."More...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I Sleep in Hitler's Room: An American Jew Visits Germany by Tuvia Tenenbom

Reviewed by Spengler

Reading the news reports from the weekend party conference of Germany's Christian Democratic Union, it is hard to shake the feeling that Chancellor Angela Merkel has lost her grip on reality. "It is time for a breakthrough to a new Europe," she said, and added, "this Europe is a community of destiny in the globalized world," which is now "in its most difficult moment since the Second World War."

Really? The "most difficult moment since the Second World War"? Europe nearly got swallowed up into the Evil Empire during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Now, that would seem tocount as a difficult moment. I'll review that story later. Today's question is why Ms Merkel - a trained scientist, and a person of high intelligence and considered judgment - is acting like a lunatic in public. "The task of our generation now is to complete the economic and currency union in Europe and, step by step, create a political union," she told her party.

The problem is not that Merkel is crazy, but that an entire generation of Germans is crazy. That is the theme of Tuvia Tenenbom's report of his random (and sometimes not-so-random) conversations with Germans from all walks of life, from the political and business elite to bottle-throwing anarchists.More...

Why is the building of the mosque so problematical in your view?GAISCH: I’ve got nothing against it, as long as it’s there for everyone. And the financing must not be a secret. For their mosque in Herrgottwiesgasse the Bosnians mentioned costs of twelve million. That cannot be financed from the association members alone. We suspect foreign, perhaps Saudi Arabian, forces are behind it. That’s how it was in Bosnia and there are problems there today. I also detect this intention in Graz.The mosque as a refuge for radicalisation?GAISCH: In the worst case. It’ll never be an obvious radicalism. There won’t ever be sword-fighters coming. We will be slowly infiltrated. This population group has more children, another lifestyle. They’re doing it very cleverly with a building in which lots of people will have a place. It’ll be more than a mosque: a cultural, social centre with nurseriesMore...

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Lecture & book presentationwith Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi(Senior Fellow with the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in Washington and long-term director of the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels)Chair: Simone Dinah Hartmann (STOP THE BOMB)Thursday, November 17th 2011, 7.30 PMUniversity Campus Altes AKH, Court 10.2, Lecture Hall D (Map)Spitalgasse 4, 1090 ViennaThe event will be held in English.The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enqelab-e Eslami) is more commonly known as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), or the Pasadran. Most recently, the IRGC draw international attention for its alleged involvement in the attack plans in Washington DC. Sworn by an oath of loyalty to Iran's Supreme Leader, the IRGC is the regime's Praetorian Guard, the custodian of its nuclear program, and now a juggernaut in Iran's economy. Since 1979, the Guards have played a key role in protecting the Revolution internally against domestic opposition while actively seeking to export it abroad. The IRGC has been at the forefront of repression every time ordinary Iranians have protested their lack of freedoms, including after the fraudulent presidential elections of June 2009. Iran's sponsorship of terrorism abroad is also executed through the IRGC's overseas operations' branch, the Qods Forces.In „The Pasdaran: Inside Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps“, Emanuele Ottolenghi offers a detailed overview of how the IRGC came into being, how the Guards rose to a position of prominence in Iran's current power structure, how they have penetrated Iran's economy, how they are working to help Iran attain nuclear weapons.Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi has taught at the Middle East Centre of St. Antony's College in Oxford. He has advised several foreign ministries in Europe, and testified before the Canadian and European parliaments. He has written for The Gurdian, Wall Street Journal Europe and Die Welt. Beside „The Pasdaran: Inside Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps“ he is author of „Under a mushroom cloud. Europe, Iran and the Bomb“, „Iran: The Looming Crisis. Can the West Live with Iran’s Nuclear Threat?“ and co-author of „Iran im Weltsystem. Bündnisse des Regimes und Perspektiven der Freiheitsbewegung“.Organized by STOP THE BOMB and Studienvertretung Doktorat Gewi/Hus

Monday, November 14, 2011

Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker, Modern Tokyo TimesThe conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo would have done Harry Houdini proud. After all, around 8,000 Islamic terrorists travelled all the way to Bosnia and some would either stay or move to Kosovo or go back home. These Islamic jihadists were given “a free-reign to commit terror” and to kill Orthodox Christians in the Balkans and all in the name of civilization.More...

Cheradenine Zakalwe: Looks like the burying a pig to stop a mosque technique hasn’t worked this time. (Matter of fact; I don’t know of any place where it did work. Muslims would build a mosque on top of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor if it manifested Islamic supremacy)More...

Sunday, November 13, 2011

By BENJAMIN WEINTHALRadio program heads reject anti-Semitism charge, reinstate DJ; in separate comment, Ken Jebsen says 9/11 was a "warm demolition."BERLIN – A popular German radio host is slated to return to his program on Sunday, after being temporarily pulled from his post for writing an email denying the Holocaust and spreading conspiracy theories against the US to a listener earlier this month.Ken Jebsen, who is a host at the publicly funded “Jugendwelle” music program aired by Radio Fritz, wrote, “I know who invented the Holocaust as PR.”In his crude e-mail, Jebsen said Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels implemented the public relations plan of the Holocaust and the Americans provided fuel for the entire Nazi bombing campaign, citing Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller, the American businessman. The rambling e-mail is filled with grammatical and spelling errors.In a separate comment, which was voiced before the published e-mail, Jebsen termed the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11 a “warm demolition.”The listener sent Jebsen’s email to journalist Henryk M.Broder who published Jebsen’s convoluted diatribes against Jews and the United States on his website.Broder, who writes for the daily Die Welt paper and has testified as an expert on modern expressions of Jew-hatred in a Bundestag hearing, told Bild newspaper on Friday, “This is clear anti-Semitism.”After the scandal surfaced in early November, Jebsen was removed from the program but will now return to his large youth audience.Jerusalem Post attempts to reach the 45-year-old Jebsen were not successful. Jebsen denied that his email was anti-Semitic, and he wrote on Fritz’s website that “my biography and my background obligate me to advocate for international understanding, peace and democracy.”Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Fritz radio’s parent company, defended Jebsen’s continued employment.“The accusations against the moderator that he spreads anti-Semitic ideas and denies the Holocaust are unfounded,” wrote the RBB management on Fritz’s website.In a phone conversation with the Post on Saturday, Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal center’s director for international relations, said Jebsen’s statements are “unadulterated anti-Semitism. The program has to be defunded.”Speaking from Paris, Samuels said Jebsen and the radio’s management has “to understand their legal responsibility,” adding that Jebsen is “not competent to run a youth program.”He called on the authorities to “take legal steps against” the Holocaust revisionism of Jebsen.Germany has a hate-crimes law barring incitement against Jews and Holocaust denial. It is unclear at this stage if a criminal complaint has been filed against Jebsen or RBB.Samuels, a specialist on contemporary anti-Semitism from the International Human Rights Group, said the radio station’s credibility as well as Germany’s reputation are at stake because of Jebsen, whose comments “amount to incitement, hate and racism.”The Fritz radio station studio is located in Potsdam, a city just outside of Berlin, in the state of Brandenburg.Lala Süsskind, the president of the Berlin Jewish community, issued a statement to the Post on Saturday, welcoming RBB’s announcement that Jebsen would no longer issue political statements.Süsskind, who heads Germany’s largest regional Jewish community with a membership of over 10,000, said it is “strange” that a music moderator is spreading political commentary.In a sign that Berlin’s Jewish community is upset with RBB’s decision to retain Jebsen as an employee, Süsskind said in other countries highprofile people would have lost their jobs. She cited the case of John Galliano, the former top fashion designer for Christian Dior, who was fired after an anti-Semitic rant earlier this year.Galliano praised Hitler at a Paris cafe.In a phone interview with the Post on Saturday, Volker Schreck, a spokesman for RBB, said the station “regrets the formulation” of Jebsen, but does not believe he is anti-Semitic. Schreck said the station would not continue his program if his remarks were grounded in anti-Semitism.When asked if RBB chose to prioritize its listener numbers over combating hatred of Jews, Schreck said “it would be cynical to speak of quotas” of listeners as the reason to retain Jebsen.Selin Güngör, an employee at Fritz, said on Saturday that Jebsen will host his regularly scheduled 2 p.m. program on Sunday.jpost

Saturday, November 12, 2011

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a UN report that Iran had worked on an atomic weapon design was "alarming" but sanctions had not been fully exhausted as a means of pressuring Tehran, and Germany would consider a tougher round of measures.In an interview with the Leipziger Volkszeitung published on Saturday, Merkel said opposition to fresh sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program by some countries was "regrettable".Russia and China have declared their opposition, limiting the chances of pushing through another UN Security Council package."I think the methods we can use to force Iran to be more transparent have not been fully exhausted. Sanctions are first in line here. These sanctions should be as broad as possible," Merkel said.Iran had clearly "not put all its cards on the table", and she urged the country to act with transparency.United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday Washington was consulting allies on further steps to pressure Iran, but she stopped short of specifying actions under consideration.Earlier this week the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that Iran had worked on developing an atomic bomb design and may still be conducting such research.jpost

Friday, November 11, 2011

A man held in German custody could be jailed for life if convicted by an American court on charges that he conspired to provide Al-Qaida with explosives and training, prosecutors in the United States said on Thursday.The US Attorney's office in Brooklyn said that a federal grand jury had indicted Abdeladim El-Kebir, also known as "Abi al-Barra," with "conspiring to provide material support, including personnel, training, lethal substances and explosives, to al-Qaida.""El-Kebir is also charged with conspiring to possess weapons, including a destructive device," the prosecutors' office said in a statement.Details of the charges against El-Kebir, who was arrested in Düsseldorf this April, were not revealed. The Moroccan-born man was arrested with two others suspected of being al-Qaida members. The German Federal Prosecutor said at the time the group was experimenting with building a shrapnel bomb, with plans to detonate in a large crowd.The American government is expected to request his extradition for trial.thelocal

Thursday, November 10, 2011

A new report shows that thousands of young women and girls in Germany are victims of forced marriages every year.Most of the victims come from Muslim families; many have been threatened with violence and even death.The revelations have shocked the German public and will add to the ongoing debate in Germany over the question of Muslim immigration and the establishment of a parallel Islamic society there. The revelations will intensify an ongoing debate in Germany over Muslim immigration and the role of Islam there.The 160-page report, entitled, "Forced Marriages in Germany: Numbers and Analysis of Counseling Cases," was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of the Family, and made public at a news conference in Berlin on November 9.The problem of forced marriage is evidently far more widespread than previously believed.More...hudson-ny

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Nearly half of those in forced marriages or in danger of such in Germany are German citizens, while around a third are minors, according to the most detailed study of the practice to date.The study, commissioned by the Ministry for Family Affairs, threw up a number of surprises, as well as confirming much that is already known about forced marriages, said the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday which had advance access to the report, due to be launched the same day.Nearly all of those concerned came from migrant families, with the most common country of origin of the parents being Turkey, followed by the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, according to the report. More than 80 percent of the parents concerned were Muslim, while nearly 10 percent were Yazidist, a Kurdish religion, and more than three percent were Christians. Yet the study’s authors, from the Hamburg-based Lawaetz Foundation and the women’s organisation Terre des Femmes, warned against regarding the problem as an Islamic one – factors such as tradition, images of masculinity and poverty should not be ignored, they stressed. The 160-page report was based on information from 830 advice centres across the country, which had helped around 3,400 people in 2008 – as well as accounts from schools and migrant organisations.This could skew the apparent share of Germans among those reported, as they might be more likely to approach such organisations than people who had only been in the country a short while and did not have good German language skills.The victims of forced marriage said it was their fathers who exerted the most pressure upon them. The authors said it was notable that forced marriages also featured in families where the father had professional training or had graduated from high school – more than six percent of those examined. Yet in general the fathers had the average educational levels of their migrant peers and nearly 90 percent of the victims’ mothers had no formal education.The main motive for the forced marriage was the image of the family, the victims reported – it was often a mechanism to stop unwanted friendships and even as a reaction to the homosexuality of a child – around five percent of those concerned were male. Around a quarter of the victims said they were threatened with death, while more than half said their relatives used violence against them and more than 70 percent said threats and blackmail were used to push them into marriages they did not want. The government’s Integration Commissioner Maria Böhmer told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that last year's criminalisation of forced marriages and right of return for people forced into marriages abroad who previously would have lost their German residency permit for being away for too long, must be better advertised among the migrant community in Germany. “We need to offer more advice and help, to men as well,” she told the paper, and called for teachers to be able to react better to signs of a forced marriage among their pupils. “Forced marriage must play a greater role in teacher training in the future,” said Böhmer, while also calling for more action from the countries where the forced marriages are conducted.thelocal

Perhaps health-food and vitamin supplements should be labelled, “Warning: Over-Concern for Your Health May Be Damaging to Your Health.”by Theodore DalrympleAs everyone knows, Mother Nature not only knows best but means us no harm: and therefore, the less we mess around with her and her products, the better. Although many people may have remarked, more in sorrow than in anger, how small and shriveled organic vegetables often appear by comparison with those that have been treated with chemicals, it is obvious that they (the organic ones) must be better for us because they are nearer to what Mother Nature intended.This item of faith took something of a knock recently with the outbreak of Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli food poisoning in Germany. It was no small matter: more than 4000 people suffered from it and more than 50 died.Papers in the latest New England Journal of Medicine from the Robert Koch Institute in Germany trace the epidemic and describe its characteristics. Anyone who doubts the brilliance of modern epidemiological methods, and the astonishing rapidity with which they permit the cause of an outbreak to be traced, notwithstanding initial mistakes, should read this paper. What once took millennia to understand now takes weeks.The authors used three methods, knowing as they did from clinical and laboratory studies that the epidemic was caused by E. coli. First, they asked people who had suffered from food poisoning, and a series of controls, what they had eaten. Second, they asked the same question of people who had eaten in a restaurant in a town geographically central to the outbreak. Finally, they traced individual outbreaks to an original, single source.The epidemic was caused by eating raw bean sprouts grown at an organic farm where the products had probably been contaminated from seeds imported from Egypt as long as two years before. One of the curious things about the epidemic was that more women suffered from it than men, presumably because women are (at least in Germany) more anxious to eat healthily than men.More...

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

STOP THE BOMB Press ReleaseA conference to promote German-Iranian business relations took place under protests today in Berlin. The Congress with the title "Iranian Business Women Power" was attended by the Iranian ambassador Sheikh Attar. The event was promoted with the support of the Association of Medium-Sized Companies (BVMW).The BVMW published a press release yesterday and rejected any responsibility for the event. The association claimed that the BVWM was neither the promoter nor the organizer of the conference. The European campaign STOP THE BOMB, which is directed against the Iranian nuclear program, criticizes the BVMW: "The press release of the BVMW is a shameful statement. The association does not act according to its responsibilities. The connections between the BVMW and the conference organizer EIVENT are very close and well documented. While the most recent IAEA report shows that the regime in Tehran is building the atomic bomb and is active in all essential areas of the construction of nuclear weapons, the German middle-sized companies with the BVMW at the top continues to expand its business with the Iranian regime. This is irresponsible, and German politicians must finally find an effective strategy to prevent its medium sized companies from supporting the Iranian regime." [1]In a letter to the members of the political advisory council of the BVMW, STOP THE BOMB had urged the politicians to take steps to prevent the event. Members of the political board of the BVMW are Wolfgang Gerhard (Liberal Party FPD), Dagmar Wöhrl (Christian Democrats, CSU), Brigitte Zypries (Social Democrats, SPD) and Cem Özdemir (Green Party) and others.The Simon Wiesenthal Center also issued a press release critical of the conference. "Every German politician who visited the congress violates the sanctions against the Iranian regime, which were established by Germany, the EU, the United States and the United Nations," the Center said. Seminars such as this conference aim at promoting closer business ties with Iran, particularly in the energy sector, an area targeted by EU sanctions. This became evident in a recent event with the Iranian ambassador in Berlin, which took place at the German Foundation on Foreign Relations (DGAP). STOP THE BOMB had protested against this event, too.About 40 people demonstrated at the conference in front of the Seminaris Hotel in Berlin and demanded tougher sanctions against Iran. STOP THE BOMB urged the Board and the Advisory Council of the BVMW to cut its ties to lobbyists like Mir Durandish and the organization EIVENT immediately and stop advertising business with Iran.---------[1] The newspaper of the BVMW called "Der Mittelstand" stated in its most recent edition 4.2011: "The BVMW and Iran's ambassador Ali Reza Sheikh Attar want to strengthen economic relations." Compare: www.eivent.de/pdf/bvmwanz1.pdf. The article also states: "The BVMW with four employees in its Tehran office supports interested companies with information and free initial consultation, explained Mir Durandish." EIVENT organizer Mir Durandish is speaking at various events for the promotion of business in Iran speaking for the BVMW, see for example an event in September 2011 in the German city Senftenberg http://www.bvmw-lausitz.de/de/veranstaltungen/2011/september/rh0709/info.html

An episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek, portraying characters dressed as Nazis, was aired on Friday night for the first time ever on German public television, The Telegraph reported Saturday.The episode was made in 1968, but due to its content, which is riddled with Nazi insignia, slogans and ideology, it was deemed inappropriate to air in Germany.More...

Monday, November 07, 2011

by Soeren KernTurkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Germany on November 1 and 2 to mark the 50th anniversary of a German-Turkish agreement on guest workers.Erdogan turned what was supposed to be a friendly photo opportunity into a platform from which to launch a fresh tirade against Berlin for a long list of perceived slights and shortcomings in its treatment of the estimated 3.5 million Turkish immigrants who now live in Germany.Erdogan said Germany's insistence that immigrants who want to live in Germany must learn the German language is "against human rights." He also demanded that Berlin grant German citizenship to Turkish immigrants regardless of the efforts they make to integrate into German society.For good measure, Erdogan accused Germany of being "an accessory" to the terror campaign launched by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. He also blamed Germany for derailing Turkey's decades-long bid to join the European Union.Adding to the controversy, a group of German scientists, politicians and human rights activists greeted Erdogan's visit to Germany by filing a war crimes complaint against the Turkish prime minister and nine other senior Turkish political and military officials.The complaint, filed with the Federal Prosecutor's Office in the south-western German city of Karlsruhe on November 2, is based on 2002 "universal jurisdiction" legislation, which gives German courts the right to prosecute human rights violations committed anywhere in the world.The lawsuit accuses Erdogan and the others for ten acts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture and the use of chemical weapons in connection with Turkish military operations against Kurdish rebels since 2003.German President Christian Wulff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had invited Erdogan to attend a ceremony commemorating the October 31, 1961 labor recruitment agreement between West Germany and Turkey which has prompted millions of Turkish guest workers flock to Germany over the past 50 years.But that agreement also marks the beginning of Germany's current problems with Muslim immigration.Back in 1961, West Germany's post-World War II economy was booming and similar treaties with Greece, Italy and Spain were insufficient to supply Germany's seemingly endless demand for labor. By the end of 1969, more than one million Turkish "guest workers" had arrived in Germany to work in the "host country's" industrial zones.The initial idea was that the Turkish laborers would return home after a period of two years, but the so-called "rotation clause" was removed from the German-Turkish treaty in 1964, partly after pressure from sectors of German industry who did not want to pay the costs of constantly training new workers. The predictable result was that many Turks never returned home.Today, the Turkish population in Germany has mushroomed; Turks now constitute the largest ethnic minority group. Demographers expect that the Turkish population in Germany will increase exponentially in coming decades, thanks largely to both a high birth rate and Germany's continuing high demand for foreign workers.Germany's demand for foreign labor is being fuelled by a demographic crisis, in which the German population is not only ageing, but also shrinking at a rapid pace. According to recent projections by the German Federal Statistics Office, Germany's current population of 82 million, the largest in the European Union, is set to decline by as much as 20%, to 65 million, over the next five decades. At the same time, 34% of the population will be older than 65 and 14% will be 80 or more by 2060, up from 20% and 5% respectively in 2009.The twin challenges of depopulation and aging will have major consequences for the financial sustainability of Germany's cradle-to-grave social security system. The number of pensioners, for example, that will have to be supported by working-age people could almost double by 2060, according to the Federal Statistics Office. While 100 people of working age between 20 and 65 had to provide the pensions for 34 retired people in 2009, they will have to generate income for between 63 and 67 pensioners in 2060.This implies that in the future, Germany will become more, not less, dependent on immigrants. Further, Turks will continue to be a major source of labor, especially considering that the birth rate among Turkish immigrants in Germany is 2.4, nearly double that of the native German population (which at 1.38 is far below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman). If these numbers hold, demographers predict that the number of native Germans will be cut in half in around six generations, while the number of Muslim immigrants in Germany is forecast to more than quadruple during that same period.Not surprisingly, Germans are apprehensive about the future; their anxiety is fuelling a national debate about Muslim immigration and integration, as well as the role of Islam in Germany. Germans are especially concerned about the presence in the country of millions of non-integrated Muslims.In a landmark speech in October 2010, Merkel conceded that Germany's efforts to build a post-war multicultural society have "failed utterly." She said: "We are a country which at the beginning of the 1960s actually brought [Muslim] guest workers to Germany. Now they live with us and we lied to ourselves for a while, saying that they will not stay and that they will have disappeared again one day. That is not the reality. This multicultural approach -- saying that we simply live side by side and are happy about each other -- this approach has failed, failed utterly."Faced with the reality that more than one million immigrants who live in Germany cannot speak any German at all, the government recently began pushing for the children of non-German-speaking parents to develop better German language skills.This has angered Erdogan, who during an earlier visit to Germany in February 2011 urged Turkish immigrants to teach their children to learn to read and write Turkish before German. Speaking to a crowd of more than 10,000 immigrants waving Turkish flags and shouting "Turkey is Great!" in the German industrial city of Düsseldorf, Erdogan said: "We are against assimilation. No one should be able to rip us away from our culture and civilization."During a similar visit to Cologne in February 2008, Erdogan told a crowd of more than 20,000 Turkish immigrants that "assimilation is a crime against humanity" and he urged them to resist assimilation into the West. In March 2010, Erdogan called on Germany open Turkish-language grade schools and high schools.Reaction in Germany to Erdogan's latest rhetoric has been negative.The center-right newspaper Die Welt, in an opinion article entitled "Erdogan's Efforts to Divide are Tactless" wrote that the Turkish prime minister was engaging in a "pure culture war" with his "once a Turk, always a Turk" oratory. The paper says: "Each of his state visits is more like those of a king visiting the colonies. Erdogan believes he is the patron of all three million Turks in Germany, as if they belonged to him. This is paternalistic and yes, even non-democratic and nationalist."The respected newspaper Die Zeit, in an article entitled, "Erdogan: A Curse for Germany's Turks," wrote: "The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is a disaster for the Turks in Germany. Once again, Erdogan used his visit to Germany to achieve his national populist aims. Again, it went to the Turkish language: children should first learn Turkish, then German. Of course, it is desirable that children with Turkish roots learn Turkish. The problem of the Turkish educational failures lies not in their first language, but in poor mastery of both languages. Hundreds of thousands of children cannot adequately speak either Turkish or German."The newspaper says Erdogan's use of inflammatory rhetoric all boils down to domestic politics. Die Zeit writes: "Erdogan is not really interested in the fate of Turkish immigrants and their children. His nationalist show is all about playing with the feelings and the frustrations of German Turks. It is a pose which he considers promising: Erdogan wants to tap into the angry Turkish citizen. Why does he want dual citizenship? So that he can campaign for votes in Germany and thereby gain significant percentages among voters abroad. Erdogan's embarrassing nationalistic pomp makes Turkey's accession to the EU far less likely."More...hudson-ny

Sunday, November 06, 2011

A pro-Iranian business conference slated for Tuesday in Berlin triggered sharp criticism last week and on Saturday from European-based NGOs and Mideast experts because the event seeks to promote trade with the Islamic Republic.

The group EIVENT (European- Iranian Ventures) organized the conference titled “Economic Congress: Iranian Business Women Power.” EIVENT listed the German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW) as a sponsor.

“For Iranian business women to be honored in Germany – while their sisters in Iran are humiliated, silenced, repressed and stoned – is a slap at human rights,” said Dr. Shimon Samuels, director of international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

“Now Iranian women are to be used as a pretext even on German soil. Any German political representative attending this fair will be violating the sanctions regimes against Iran established by Germany, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations,” Samuels said.

Asked about the BVMW sponsoring the pro-Iran trade event, Eberhard Vogt, a spokesman for BVMW, on Saturday issued an e-mail statement to The Jerusalem Post. “The BVMW is neither the organizer nor host of the company Congress Iranian Business Women Power in Berlin. The BVMW expressly barred the organizer from using the association’s logo and received confirmation of the ban,” he wrote.

The BVMW conducts “trade with all business partners across the world” and maintains “strict political neutrality,” the BVMW said. “It is, therefore, absurd to maintain that Germany’s leading mid-sized [business] association is violating sanctions against Iran or glossing over the situation of women in Iran.”

Dr. Dieter Graumann, head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, however, blasted German companies in late October for failing to sever business deals with Iran. Midsized firms are largely responsible for the bulk of German investment and trade with Iran.

Saba Farzan, a leading German- Iranian expert who has written extensively on Iran’s repression of its democracy activists, told the Post on Saturday, “While our public's legitimate concerns about Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program are growing, our medium-sized companies still continue to do business with an oppressive regime. And now the regime advocates so-called ‘women business power’ – women power with forced veiling, gender apartheid and other forms of severe persecution of Iran’s most courageous freedom activists. Does anyone get the ridiculous picture?”

Farzan continued: “Our medium-sized businesses obviously don’t. It becomes evident once again that we need a strong policy strategy to withdraw our medium-sized businesses from Iran. Iranian women are called lions as they’re in the forefront of challenging this medieval regime – with their courage, with their intellect and with their self-confidence. It wouldn’t require a lot for Germany’s smaller companies to be smart enough and not to fall for this tragic-comedy-propaganda event and to become lions in isolating the brutal Islamic Republic.”

Nasrin Amirsedghi, a German- Iranian who in 2007 helped expose the mid-sized and blue-chip companies’ support for trade with the Islamic Republic, told the Post on Saturday, “The absurdity of German economic interests in Iran knows no limits!” and the “Iranian Business Women Power” event is “a slap in the face of humanity and decency.” She cited a running list of anti-woman policies and forms of misogyny in Iran.

“In a country where the value of a woman is worth 50 camels, a human-rights lawyer like Nasrin Sotudeh is sentenced to 11 years in prison and prohibited for 20 from practicing law because she represented opponents” of Iran’s regime.

“Women are barred from certain jobs like diplomats and judges. Women are forced into legalized prostitution because of poverty,” she said.

Amirsedghi has written articles on the repression of women in the Islamic Republic. “Gender-apartheid and forced dress codes” are rampant.

A representative from the Campus Hotel in Berlin, confirmed that the pro-business Iran conference will be held there on Tuesday. She could not tell the Post how many businesses and participants registered and said a spokesperson was not available over the weekend to comment.

Dr. Diana Gregor, a Vienna-based expert on Central European business ties with Tehran, told the Post on Saturday, “I find the event outrageous, very disturbing and quite questionable considering the fact that just a couple of days ago the IAEA revealed that it has substantial evidence from intelligence sources and their own IAEA inspectors demonstrating that Iran is carrying out a nuclear program.

“And last year the Marriott Hotel in Hamburg hosted the Iran Business Forum to jumpstart investment opportunities in northwest Iran,” Gregor said. “All this shows no change of heart from Germany, despite some companies pulling out of their Iran business.”

Germany’s oft-invoked “justification of being afraid of Chinese rivals is no reason to deal with dictators, murderers, human-rights abusers and oppressors,” Gregor said.

Melody Sucharewicz, a Munich-born Israeli who is a prominent specialist on German- Israeli relations, told the Post: “This is extremely worrying – especially as it’s not an isolated incident. Rather it shows a trend.”jpost

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Former NATO officer, Major Kristian Kahrs, has joined ranks of protesting Serbs who are under a dual attack in Kosovo – by the Muslim Albanians who want them exterminated and by NATO who want Serbs to obey them.According to Belgrade paper, Vecernje Novosti, Major Kahrs, seen above in photo among Serbs, has joined Serbs at the barricades and has apologized for his contribution to the organized extermination of Serbs in Kosovo.“At the time when we were responsible for security in Kosovo, some 250,000 Serbs and non Albanians have been ethnically cleansed out of here. Therefore, as a former officer of the KFOR I feel a responsibility to apologize,” Major Kahrs is quoted by Novosti and translated here freely.He says that NATO failed in saving Serbs from Albanian killings.Novosti says that Major Kahrs heard about Kosovo “thanks to sculpted euphoria in the media” and that he was learning about Kosovo in Norway’s Institute for foreign policy.“My mentor told me that bombing of Yugoslavia was a catastrophic mistake and that the Albanian mafia runs the largest deals in Europe,” Major Kahrs is quoted by Novosti and translated here freely.NATO used these mafia elements to create a Kosovo Albanian army and police.“That is how criminal elements got their legitimate status,” Major Kahrs is quoted by Novosti and translated here freely.An earlier story on Kahrs here.M Bozinovich

Friday, November 04, 2011

Bielefeld, Germany - German police were on Thursday hunting for a Kurdish girl after arresting five members of her family for kidnapping their younger sister at gunpoint from the home of her German boyfriend.

The search for Azur Ozmen, 18, had been fruitless so far, but the investigation was continuing, police in Bielefeld in western Germany said.

A court ordered four brothers and a sister of the girl to be remanded in custody. The five, aged 21 to 25, were detained on Wednesday in connection with the abduction at gunpoint on Monday night in the city of Detmold.

Her boyfriend had been threatened but not injured, police said.

There has been an outcry in Germany over the past decade at 'honour killings' and other violence by Muslim families towards daughters entering into relationships with German men.More...

Support our protests against the cooperation with the Iranian regime! Support the Iranian freedom movement!Speeches of Nasrin Amirsedghi (exile-Iranian cultural scientist) and others.Time & Venue: November 8, 2011, 8.15 a.m. at the Seminaris Campus Hotel, Takustraße 39, 14195 Berlin. (Photo above, Map, U3 Dahlem-Dorf).Please find more Information on the German site. You can find a press release regarding a congress of the same organisation which took place in Dresden, October 10 below.German business alliance cooperates with Iranian regime, event covered as women empowermentSTOP THE BOMB press release November 4th, 2011Next Tuesday the Seminaris Campus Hotel in Berlin will host the „Business Congress - Iranian Business Women Power” aimed at initiating new Iran business. [1]The event is organized by the business association European-Iranian Ventures (EIVENT) in cooperation with the Federal Association of Mid Tier Business [Bundesverband mittelständiger Wirtschaft] (BVMW). [2] Among the members of it’s political board of advisers are the leading German politicians Wolfgang Gerhardt (FDP), Brigitte Zypries (SPD) and Cem Özdemir (Green Party).[3] The BVMW represents ca. 55.000 small and midsize companies and freelancers and calls itself the biggest organized force of the German mid tier business. A key figure for the promotion of Iran business is Mir Durandish, head of the Iranian representation of the BVMW. He also maintains close ties with EIVENT.[4]„The congress is about initiating new German-Iranian business despite sanctions“, says Jonathan Weckerle, spokesman of the campaign STOP THE BOMB. „The propagandistic title ‚women-power‘ is used to whitewash the situation of women in the Islamic Republic and the ruthless business interests of German companies“, Weckerle continues.The BVMW counters the international efforts to raise the pressure on the regime. Last week officials from the US treasury tried to convince European governments of sanctioning the Central Bank of Iran. [5]The ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar, is expected as a guest of honor at the congress. Attar is a confidant of Ahmadinejad, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and a long time regime functionary. According to Iranian opposition circles, Attar during his time as governor of the provinces Kurdistan and West-Azerbaijan was personally responsible for the terror against the opposition. [6] The press reported that ambassador Attar is also involved in proliferation activities for the Iranian nuclear program. [7]The exiled Iranian cultural scientist Nasrin Amirsedghi comments: „Using alleged achievements in womens’ rights to advertise this event is a humiliating mockery for the women in Iran. The Islamic Republic stands for coerced headscarves, gender apartheid and a legal system where women count only half. Iran does certainly not stand for ‘women power’.”STOP THE BOMB will hold a protest rally against the congress on November 8th, 8.30 am, at the Seminaris Campus Hotel in Berlin, Takustr. 39.More...

Thursday, November 03, 2011

A protest organised by the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland o protest at discrimination against Muslims has caused controversy as some of the protesters used the yellow Star of David symbol.More than 2,000 people gather in Bern to denounce Islamophobia and discrimination against the Muslim community and the stereotypes often associated with Islam.The protest was organised to express the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland's commitment to "working towards the guarantee of principles of human rights and the freedom of religion in Switzerland," Elie Qassaim, the Swiss Islamic Council's spokesman, who converted to Islam a few years ago, said.Lauren Booth, Tony Blair's sister-in-law, who converted to Islam in 2010 spoke at the rally as did British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, who was once taken prisoner by the Taliban in Afghanistan and converted to Islam after her release.Tensions surfaced in Switzerland following the vote to ban the construction of new minarets in mosques.More...

In my article at Front Page today I wrote this: "The worst aspect of this firebombing is that there are certain to be voices in the West over the next few days – some of them no doubt quite prominent and respected – who will call on Westerners to be more 'sensitive' toward Muslims, and to end this unacceptable hurting of Muslim feelings by drawing cartoons of him and making him the honorary editor-in-chief of a comedy magazine."More...

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Germany’s attitude to its Turkish minority on his arrival in Berlin to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a "guest worker" agreement between the two countries.Erdogan's ceremonial trip to Germany has been free of friction so far. He was given an official reception at the palace of German President Christian Wulff on Tuesday evening, and he will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel for a photo opportunity at an event at the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.But Erdogan's remarks in the run-up to the trip have been less harmonious.“German politicians do not acknowledge the contribution of the three million Turks in Germany enough,” he told the mass circulation Bild newspaper. He said there were 72,000 Turkish employers in Germany who provide 350,000 jobs. “The guest workers of yesterday are slowly becoming the employers, academics, artists,” the Turkish head of government said.Erdogan also criticized the insistence on learning German as a condition of living in Germany. He said this was unsupported in the relevant EU guidelines. "Making knowledge of German an important condition is against human rights," he said.thelocal

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

A mansion formerly lived in by Muammar Qaddafi youngest son, killed in April, is in limbo in Munich, partly because his eccentric revamp of the interior could make the luxury property difficult to sell.The younger Qaddafi, Saif al-Arab, who was enrolled at Munich's Technical University from 2006 and 2010, had the elegant oak floors painted black and rooms decorated with gold paint, according to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily.German news magazine Der Spiegel also reported that the mansion’s front garden was ploughed up and its garage entrance torn down to make way for a freight elevator to carry Qaddafi’s collection of expensive cars.Saif al-Arab officially terminated his German residence in February and was killed in a NATO air-raid in Libya in April.The villa on Pienzenauer Strasse in Munich's exclusive Bogenhausen district is now officially the property of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC). The location is prized for its proximity to the city's renowned English Garden.The Libyan government purchased the newly-built 540 square-metre villa in 2009 from Georg Funke, ex-CEO of major bank Hypo Real Estate. The house was officially declared a guest residence along with a second villa in Waldperlach, another exclusive district.During his stay in Munich, al-Arab was investigated by German police over allegations of assault and arms smuggling, but never prosecuted. He even attained semi-permanent residence in the city by proving an annual income exceeding the German threshold of €66,000 ($91,000).Media reports recently speculated that the now-abandoned mansion will be transformed into a new Libyan consulate, but a German Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Süddeutsche that talks between Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and the NTC had included no such topics.Detlev von Wagenheim, the real estate agent who sold the villa to Libya for €8 million, said he was commissioned to resell the property after al-Arab’s hasty exit out of the country last spring.“We have the expertise, and we’ve gotten to know the object very well,“ Wagenheim told the paper.thelocal